Bizarre indie band Throws release self-titled debut album

Throws haven’t been around long – so don’t worry your little cotton socks off for not having heard of them before.

The two members of the group, Mike Lindsay and Sam Genders, used to be in a quirky folktronica band called Tunng. After an excursion to Iceland, the pair decided to branch off and create Throws, recording their debut album in a harbour in a Reykjavik, because why the hell not?

Influenced by their surroundings, the band’s soundscape is one of chilly reverb-soaked guitars, icy synths, plus some glittery falsettos that don’t really fit in with the cold theme, but certainly give the band their edge. In fact these funky castrated vocals help lighten the mood, bringing a touch of camp glam to the serene instrumentation.

The result sounds like if you were to take funk-pop band Jungle and coat them with a December frost. Or alternatively, if you were take indie-folk group The Decembrists and airdrop them into a jungle.

In any case, Throws have an entertainingly wacky sound going on. This is matched with entertainingly wacky lyrics. The fantastically-titled ‘Punch Drunk Sober’ centres around a dream about fighting a girl in a Viking helmet in a boxing ring, which is certainly new lyrical territory.

Add to this the fact that they deliver a pretty wacky music video, and overall you’ve got a pretty wacky band.

Unfortunately Throws aren’t always consistently wild as they ought to be. Percussion-free ballads like ‘Silence in Between’ see the band taming things down a little too much, throwing away the falsettos and synths and the rest of their defining quirks for a straightforward folksy approach that could belong to any run-of-the-mill indie band’s album. Quite often they’re able to redeem themselves with their more creative numbers, the very next track ‘High Pressure Front’ opening with slow melancholy keys, but later erupting into groovy guitars and epic strings. Perhaps with time, Throws can learn to embrace their inner nutter, instead feeling the need to tone things down every couple tracks.

That said, their mid-level craziness makes them a lot more thrilling than your average bunch of guitar-wielding vanilla wafers in plaid shirts. Throws have a sense of humour and enough idiosyncrasies to set them apart from their indie contemporaries. Whatever they do next is definitely worth looking out for.